Computer Science as an option in Natural Science

Rather than applying to study Computer Science directly, you can also choose to study CS as a Natural Scientist at Cambridge. This option recognises that computers are a vital ingredient for almost all science today and it is designed to give future scientists exposure to the fundamentals of CS which will be most relevant to the later career.

How does this work? If you apply to study Natural Science at
Cambridge, you can elect to spend 25% of your first year studying
CS. If you choose to do this, you must also spend another 25%
studying the Natural Science mathematics course. (The mathematics
course is also a requirement if you wish to study many other Natural Science subjects such as Physics or Chemistry, so this shouldn't be seen as a major hurdle.)

Choosing this option means that you will only study half of the CS
that a first-year Computer Science student would study. This means
that
a transfer
into the Computer Science Tripos at the end of the first year
involves some catch-up, however it is possible, and many students
have taken this route into CS. So, if you think you would prefer to
study CS at Cambridge, apply for the Computer Science course
directly; if you want to study Natural Sciences at Cambridge, but
you think CS might be interesting, choose to study Computer Science
as an option in the first year.